African Renaissance Conference 24- 26 May 2018

RHINO CONSERVATION AND TOURISM

The importance of tourism’s role in combating the scourge of rhino and elephant poaching was touched on briefly at the OSCAP International Conference 2014 - Risk Assessment of Rhino horntrade.

The conference, held in Pretoria, illustrated both the international concern at the South African government’s plans to lobby CITES to lift the ban on the trade in horn and the weaknesses inthese proposals.It also touched on the incredible value that wild rhino have in attracting international tourists to Africandestinations like Kenya, Tanzania and, indeed, South Africa. As one of the fabled “Big Five,” the rhinohas been used to help market the continent to the global travel community for decades, and yet the travel industry has been slow to take a stance on or even engage with the South African government on their plans for a legal trade.

Dr Ben Okita-Ouma, rhino coordinator at the Kenya Wildlife Service, told the conference that rhino, along with other members of the Big Five – elephant, buffalo, leopard and lion – is a major attraction that international tourists want to see in the wild as part of their African safari experience. He pointed outthat due to the drastic drop in numbers in elephants, which are being poached at a rate of 100 animals a day, the loss of lions from habitat reduction and to feed demand for lion carcasses in the Far Eastand rhino poaching decimating rhino populations, Africa could soon be facing a “Big Two” scenario.Kenya and its neighbor, Tanzania, depend on tourism for a significant proportion of their annual GDP, and in South Africa tourism’s contribution to the economy regularly outstrips mining. Last year South African Tourism spent R755-million on marketing the country and a further R82-million on consultantsto raise the profile of the Rainbow Nation internationally. A significant part of that marketing effort concentrates on the country’s wildlife, including the Big Five and, especially, rhino.

Economist, Professor Melville Saayman of North West University focused on the “value” of rhino in tourism terms and said that his research has found that tourists are willing to pay more to seerhino than ever before, and want to see rhino in the wild “before it’s too late”. But while rhino are actively used to market South Africa to international tourists, the tourism industry has been slow to take a stance on the plans to legalese horn and the serious threats this places on remaining populations of wildrhino both in Africa and in Asia. “How are we going to market the “Big Four” if we lose our wild rhino?” asked Prof Saayman. The tourism industry is one of the rhino’s most valuable allies, however it’san ally which needs to now apply itself decisively to doing the right thing, to save an entire species.Article Sharon van Wyk Africa and its wild places grabbed awardwinning writer and film-maker Sharonvan Wyk when she was but a babe. She now writes widely on conservation, ecotourism, safari and travel and also makes natural history documentaries with her company, Painted Earth Productions.RHINO POACHING STATS FOR 2014(South Africa)

CURRENT SA RHINO POACHING TOTAL FOR 2014: 277

TOTAL ARRESTS ASSOCIATED WITH RHINO POACHINGS IN 2014: 86 Update released by DEA, 09 April 2014 FINAL RHINO POACHING STATS FOR 2013 (South Africa)